this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024

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‘Will I ever retire?’: millennials wonder what’s on the other side of middle age (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

239 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Claire*, 42, was always told: “Follow your dreams and the money will follow.” So that’s what she did. At 24, she opened a retail store with a friend in downtown Ottawa, Canada. She’d managed to save enough from a part-time government job during university to start the business without taking out a loan.

For many years, the store did well – they even opened a second location. Claire started to feel financially secure. “A few years ago I was like, wow, I actually might be able to do this until I retire,” she told me. “I’ll never be rich, but I have a really wonderful work-life balance and I’ll have enough.”

But in midlife, she can’t afford to buy a house, and she’s increasingly worried about what retirement would look like, or if it would even be possible. “Was I foolish to think this could work?” she now wonders.

She’s one of many millennials who, in their 40s, are panicking about the realities of midlife: financial precarity, housing insecurity, job instability and difficulty saving for the future. It’s a different kind of midlife crisis – less impulsive sports car purchase and more “will I ever retire?” In fact, a new survey of 1,000 millennials showed that 81% feel they can’t afford to have a midlife crisis. Our generation is the first to be downwardly mobile, at least in the US, and do less well than our parents financially. What will the next 40 years will look like?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

After WWII, the other nations (like the UK + those in the EU) were bombed all to hell & back whereas the USA was relatively fine.

There was certain union in Europe(not European Union) that was bombed 9% by area and 55% by population.

does "every" kid need one, or can some be excused to go be a farmhand without needing to finish?

Translation: To have more you should produce more, to produce more you should know more.

Farmers need education too.

EDIT: lemmy broke my comment with link to image

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Farmers need education. Farmhands do not.

Anyway I was just attempting to use it as an example - we could substitute gas station attendant or fast food worker, etc. There are jobs where, for the job anyway while ignoring the quality of life for the actual person, formalized education is less necessary than for other jobs, e.g. doctor or lawyer.

But my example of using farmhand was not made up: farmers literally pulled their kids out of primary schooling in order to make use of them on the farm. Perhaps they supplemented it with homeschooling at other times when the crop cycles allowed... or perhaps not. But either way, the ways we use to measure intelligence - e.g. if we ask what country does the city of Athens belong to - the farmhands will appear extremely low in such rankings.

So long as someone else in the family does the planning work, someone who was not merely pulled out but who flunked out of primary schooling could exist in life by contributing purely manual but not much intellectual labor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I accidentally wiped my comment. Now it will not be as good as it was.

Farmers need education. Farmhands do not.

Derp. Still, everyone needs education.

we could substitute gas station attendant or fast food worker, etc.

Dull, mind numbing work that should have been automated long time ago. And we are talking about schools, not universities.

e.g. doctor

Schools are not medical universities. But even in school you will be taught first aid. And basic anotomy in biology class.

farmers literally pulled their kids out of primary schooling in order to make use of them on the farm. Perhaps they supplemented it with homeschooling at other times when the crop cycles allowed... or perhaps not.

This is bad. Terrible.

to measure intelligence - e.g. if we ask what country does the city of Athens belong to

This question does not measure inteligence, it measures erudition. Inteligence, erudition and wisdom are different things. Question for intelligence would be like "bat and ball cost 1.1$, bat costs 1$ more than ball, how much ball costs?".

So long as someone else in the family does the planning work, someone who was not merely pulled out but who flunked out of primary schooling could exist in life by contributing purely manual but not much intellectual labor.

We are Homo sapiens, not Homo ergaster. Tractor better contributes "purely manual but not much intellectual labor".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If you will allow me to say? Your premise seems incorrect. Words like "need" presumes a goal to keep people alive. We "need" Oxygen, in order to breathe which itself is necessary in order to stay alive rather than convert into a corpse state of 'existence'. However, as e.g. https://lemmy.zip/post/17644464 shows, we are not being allowed to have even that. And if even Oxygen is denied us, then surely education will be even less of a "right", for homo sapiens or otherwise.

To a fascist, such as the current set of billionaires in charge, education of the masses - or even our very existence, in light of globalism for now and automation eventually - is no longer necessary. And with climate change diminishing resources, possibly it is not even desirable or neutral anymore, so much as something to be either neutrally or perhaps actively pursued to demolish what has previously been built up. e.g. when the pandemic occurred, the response was "so what? let them die. BuT tHe EcOnOmY will go on just fine without them, in fact better without those restrictions imposed by safety protocols".

So no, "everyone needs education" sounds like something that is not true... at least according to the likes of Elon Musk, who now controls Twitter. Not Bezos, nor Zuckerberg, etc. And they would really like it if we did not tax them in order to pay for such. And a LOT of people seem to agree with them, whether we like it or not. See this fantastic description of it: https://youtu.be/agzNANfNlTs?si=dAGHoctLiPimmTTQ.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Also for some reason I didn't do first quote and my "derp" didn't looked like reply to my obvious mistake. Sorry.

Words like "need" presumes a goal to keep people alive.

I was talking more broadly as a goal to make everyone fully functioning member of society and citizens of their own country, preferably capable of finding cognitive biases in their and others' statements and distinguishing science and medicine from pseudoscience and homeopathic antivax chiropractors.

However, as e.g. https://lemmy.zip/post/17644464 shows, we are not being allowed to have even that.

I was so often sangry lately(for last 2 years), that I'm just tired of bullshit happening everywhere.

And if even Oxygen is denied us, then surely education will be even less of a "right", for homo sapiens or otherwise.

You know, from my sofa it seems everything sucks, just some countries like nordic ones suck slightly less. And it seems the world plunges into neofeudalism with celebrations by ignorant.

current set of billionaires in charge, education of the masses - or even our very existence, in light of globalism for now and automation eventually - is no longer necessary.

Meanwhile they will do everything to keep internationalism and automations to themselves, but never for masses. I think I already mentioned DMCA as expample. Other examples are software patents(which are basically math patents), patents on nature(for example plant varieties, genes of existing organisms).

pursued to demolish what has previously been built up.

It seems it happens everywhere. How about subject called "basics of orthodox culture" in school? Secular state is so secular. Another reason to hate Putinism.

e.g. when the pandemic occurred, the response was "so what? let them die. BuT tHe EcOnOmY will go on just fine without them, in fact better without those restrictions imposed by safety protocols".

This is so stupid. Human must not be considered a tool. And I feel stupid too because at start of pandemic my opinion wasn't far from that, but more along the lines of "it doesn't help that much, why bother" rather then economy part. To be fair it was during peak of police violence and fines printing press during lockdown.

And a LOT of people seem to agree with them, whether we like it or not.

Damn. I am afraid of my country becoming like this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

It's okay - that's how I interpreted it:-). Lemmy formatting can also be weird sometimes and people access via different methods, so I try to remember that as well.

citizens of their own country

^This is the big one, particularly in a democracy this is so extremely crucial. But... we did not bother to secure it, so now we may be (are?) losing it all. Like someone who has lost their immune system, we are now vulnerable to not only lack of knowledge but outright presence of active disinformation. Wait... didn't we need that - ooopsie daisy!? :-P

I am afraid of my country becoming like this.

If we had had more fear sooner, we might have avoided getting eaten alive by Russian disinformation campaigns. As it is... our lack of fear has definitely harmed us greatly, possibly fatally.

The good news is that whatever society rises out of our corpse will have learned lessons from the ordeal. Rome also fell too, but life goes on. Ours might not, and given climate change humans or even mammals + far more might not, but even so, all we can control is ourselves individually, right now. I for one take that as a charge to do whatever I can in however much time we have left. And maybe it's not a foregone conclusion after all? So much the better. All we have is today - make it a good one.:-)